ErichTheRed writes: Computerworld has put together an interesting collection of links to various sources detailing the decline of US R&D/innovation in technology. The cross section of sources is interesting — everything from government to private industry. It's interesting to see that some people are actually concerned about this...even though all the US does is argue internally while rewarding the behaviour that hastens the decline.

It should be no surprise [johntaylorgatto.com] when the effect of schooling, in the words of William Torrey Harris, U.S. Commissioner of Education from 1889-1906:

Ninety-nine [students] out of a hundred are automata, careful to walk in prescribed paths, careful to follow the prescribed customs. This is not an accident but the result of substantial education, which scientifically defined, is the subsumption of the individual

and

Our schools have been scientifically designed to prevent over-education from happening. The average Ameri

I don't follow you. He made those comments while some of the brightest, most creative, and most productive minds our country has ever known were entering the US educational system. The technological progress made by the US in the first half of the 20th century is staggering. It seems to me that whatever we were doing with our students educationally at that time is exactly what we need now.

Centralized control of education wasn't really complete until about the 1960s. Many of people entering the educational system, especially those away from the major urban centers on the coast, were still being taught by teachers who had not been through this type of schooling. In addition, the rot had not yet spread to the private schools as well. Read Gatto's book if you want a more detailed timeline.